The top 100 cited articles published in emergency medicine journals.

INTRODUCTION

Our objective was to identify trends and examine the characteristics of the top 100 cited articles in emergency medicine (EM) journals.

METHODS

Scopus Library database was queried to determine the citations of the top 100 EM articles. A second database (Google Scholar) was used to gather the following information: number of authors, publication year, journal name, impact factor, country of origin, and article type (original article, review article, conference paper, or editorial). The top 100 cited articles were selected and analyzed by 2 independent investigators.

RESULTS

We identified 100 top-cited articles published in 6 EM journals, led by Annals of Emergency Medicine (65) and American Journal of Emergency Medicine (15). All top-cited articles were published between 1980 and 2009. The common areas of study were categorized as cardiovascular medicine, emergency department administration, toxicology, pain medicine, pediatrics, traumatology, and resuscitation. A statistically significant association was found between the journal impact factor and the number of top 100 cited articles (P < .005).

CONCLUSION

The top-cited articles published in EM journals help us recognize the quality of the works, discoveries, and trends steering EM. Our analysis provides an insight to the prevalent areas of study being cited within our field of practice.